It's no secret that Vancouver's Original Chinatown has been decaying for years. There are many closed storefronts and many of the buildings are in disrepair. We happened to be down there last week and came across this stunning mural, painted on the wall of a building
It has been here for a year or so but there are usually cars parked in front, but not today. It was a late Sunday afternoon so naturally I had to stop and show you this beauty. I could have cropped off the bottom but I didn't
It was originally a gas station that must have closed 20 years ago, and we are only across the street from the main shopping area. We have had a great influx of Asians and most of them have made their home in Richmond, which is affectionately known as "Hongcouver" (Little Hong Kong)
I am a rarity. I was born in Vancouver and this was a bustling area full of activity when I was much younger. I even remember when this gas station was in operation. When I first met Mrs Skoot, their family home was less than 2 blocks from here, before their family was expropriated from their land to make room for a Fire Station, which was never built
I spent many years down here taking photographs of this area until it got too dangerous. I have thousands of B&W negatives in binders from our weekend walks. We (my friend and myself) used to spend hours walking miles and miles when I was able to walk great distances. I remember one time we were walking down an alley in the Strathcona Area and snapping photos of clothes lines, cats in windows or anything else of interest, pointing our cameras from the lane into the back yards of private residences. I belonged to 3 camera clubs and we needed to produce prints for judging. This particular day as we were walking down the lane, a police car entered from the opposite direction and started to come our way, stopped and rolled down his window
Police: "Oh, it's you two again"
Me: "Yes, I guess the guy in the window of that house (pointing), called you"
We had met before many times and he knew we were just harmless photographers, so we spoke for a while and we went our separate ways.
I have many other stories but the last time I was down there taking photos was about 10 years ago. I was walking down the hill across the street from the Cenotaph on Cambie Street near Hastings. I saw something shiny on the sidewalk. I stopped and picked it up . . . it was a single bullet, must have fallen out of someone's pocket.
Cost of being in the Cool-Aide Club:
I bought my R1200R last September and was getting it ready for a trip this Summer. I have some more farkles to source but the first priority was to get all the maintenance completed. I installed new Michelin Pilot Road 2 tires and had the Oil & Filter changed. Then I was reading about ABS pump failures due to dirty brake fluid so I had the brake system flushed. Then I decided do the rear drive oil change and spline lube
Wouldn't you know, Castrol makes special synthetic differential oil SAF-AO for BMW and it's not available anywhere else except at a BMW dealership. Plus they recommend that you replace the telelever bolt each time you remove it, plus all crush washers
So one Saturday a few weeks ago, when my dealer had an Open House (Ducati day) I went down to pick up all this stuff and they had to order the crush washers from Alberta and I had to come back the next week to pick them up. I can't believe they would run out of these small parts and not have any on their shelf.
Then I was reading about what to use to lubricate the final drive splines. It turns out that no one uses the BMW recommended stuff, the best seems to be Honda Moly 60 so off to the Honda dealer and it had to be special ordered too. Eventually I received all the stuff I needed
There you have it, you're looking at just over $100. with taxes for what you see here
I found that owning a BMW is a great way to lose weight. You don't have to carry all that heavy money around:)
ReplyDeleteDavid:
DeleteWow, didn't know that. Wish I had more "heavy" money, I need it
As someone involved with product design I get frustrated with unique "special requirements" built in, too often for reasons I'm not convinced are justified.
ReplyDeleteI will do what I can to keep my BMW cost of ownership reasonable, if that's possible? :)
Coop:
DeleteWith so many final drive failure stories, I thought it best to use what BMW recommends, even though there is no history of failures with this particular model. This Castrol stuff is 2x more expensive than the racing diff oil. There is conflicting reports as to how often it should be changed. Originally BMW said every 40K miles, then they changed it to every 2 years (or 12K miles). This is what I have read from the Beemer forums
The previous owner would not give me the maintenance file, so I have to presume that nothing was done. The battery was also in bad condition, even though he had the factory CANBUS charger, which he never used as it took a day or two to get the battery charged back up, and even now I don't get the green light. There are 3 LED status lights on the CANBUS charger; RED, Yellow, Green. It mainly shows Yellow so the battery is not at full capacity. Just one more thing to buy when Spring gets here
Bob, the DTES link mentions that the area has begun to turn. Do you feel and see it happening or is it wishful optimism?
ReplyDeleteCoop:
Deletemany new trendy restaurants are moving into the area. I thought it was a good thing to bring people into the area and create jobs, but the residents don't want them there
http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/566034/high-end-restaurant-across-from-pigeon-park-meets-daily-protests/
There are also many new condos but with lots of iron bars for security. You see lots of broken glass on the street from broken car windows. It is hard to snap photos as many street people live/camp on the street and it is obvious you don't belong and they stare at you as you walk past. I took some video a couple of years ago, which I never edited, where there were a crowd of people at the church when free "used/donated" clothing was put on the street for them to "grab" . It is just hard to photograph that stuff so I had to position myself across the street between some cars so I wouldn't be noticed.
My car was broken into down there twice, because I was parked one block too close. When you have convertibles it is best to leave the doors unlocked and windows down so they can get inside. Otherwise you have the hassle of paying repair bills because it is below your insurance deductible.
If I can get down there to photograph I will so you can see that it looks like New York with all the store windows changed and barred. Too many stories about the Hondurans too who used to own all he pawn shops, word gets out on the street fast from store to store when we used to go in to look at all the stuff, which was probably stolen from cars. I do have a few stories of our encounters when we were snapping photos of police arresting drug dealers. We just decided it was too dangerous to go down there anymore
Cool mural Bobskoot, as to Beemer parts, they sure price them like they are proud of them eh? +1 on the Honda Moly btw. BMW: Break My Wallet. Ural stuff tends to be cheaper but the its "cheaper' .
ReplyDeleteDom
Dom:
DeleteThe City of Vancouver had a mural beautifcation programme a while ago
http://muralsvancouver.ca/tour-c/
and you can do your own self directed/audio tour in the area. Take a look at that link. Strathcona is becoming an artist's community
http://www.eastsideculturecrawl.com/crawl
so this area which is within DTES area is slowly evolving
Interesting mural Bob - it's sad when a neighborhood dies.
ReplyDeleteGood thing you do your own work, just imagine if you had to pay the BMW dealer to work on it.
Karen:
DeleteSmoke and Mirrors. I am buying all the parts I need to do the job. Now I need Torx T-50, T-45 etc. I am making a list of all the sizes I need and buy them for my BMW kit. Plus the oil should be warm before you drain, so I have to wait until I get my R1200R on the road and ride it around. Plus I need a new battery as this one will not charge to "full" capacity, it's probably the original anyway. Slowly but surely all will be done before our trip . . .
unless plans change and I decide to take my Strom. If this is the case then I need new sprockets and a new chain. Other than that, it's ready to roll
What a beautiful mural. Wonder why it's not vandalized. Obviously, the area values it.
ReplyDeleteThose days of street photography sound wonderful. Great photos come from times like that.
Martha:
DeleteWhen you see the mural in person, you feel like it should be hanging in a fine art gallery. It is that good. We have motels here too if you want to rent a place without snow (hint) Bring your camera, lots of things to photograph
My street photography days were mostly B&W film which I developed myself. To keep costs down I bulk loaded my own from 100 ft rolls. We used to shoot 8 rolls x 36 ex per day, and I could develop 4 rolls at a time in in S/S reels. back then I was using my Leica M6, which I still have
I miss my darkroom days. Every time I smell something that reminds me of hypo, I get nostalgic. I'd like to have that Fujifilm camera with the Leica lens. It has had lots of good reviews. But I'm a little preoccupied right now...
DeleteMartha:
DeleteI still have my enlargers. I cut my own mats and all my developing equipment is just sitting there waiting for a special someone to come over and use them. I could even show you how to use a 4x5 camera, I have a few of them. I can mount my Leica "M" lenses on my NEX-5n
Well, I'll keep my eyes open for any spare unwanted fabulous Leica lenses... ;^l
DeleteNice photo of the mural. Do you know what the writing says in the upper right?
ReplyDelete+1 on the Honda Moly 60. That stuff works great though I mix it with heavy grease as it is pretty light on its own. Anytime lock nuts are removed, they should be replaced. Should they be replaced with ones imported from Germany is a different question. The same for crush washers.
Richard:
DeleteI have no idea what it says. There is some writing on the left side but I have to go home to access it on my network drive. I can't do it from work because of our firewall here . The Spline Lube looks easy on the R1200, just one bolt to remove and it swivels down to reveal the splines.
That is a special type of lock nut which elongates when torqued, thus you can't use it again. I bought 3 of each and will keep one set of crush washers with the bike . I probably have a lifetime supply of that Honda Moly 60 as you only use a teaspoon every 12K miles, every 2 years.
I am not sure how long I will own this bike, perhaps only a couple of years, then I plan to buy my "last bike" so I can start with something new when I retire. I always wanted to own a BMW so we'll see how it goes this summer
That is a pretty cool mural Bob. Thanks for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteJust before we moved to Oregon in January 2001 Brad had to have an immigration physical and they picked the "Dr". We'd been to his immigration interview in Montreal a week prior and walked the streets at night without fear. Then we were driving Main and Hastings at 5 am in Vancouver and made sure to lock all our doors. It was a freaky feeling and seeing all the homeless sleeping on steps, etc was surreal.
Trobairitz:
DeleteThis Mural is only 2 blocks around the corner to Main & Hastings where all drug deals go down, and this is across the street from the Vancouver Police Station.
They had so many accidents down there because the street people don't follow rules and many had been hit by cars. They step out onto the street without warning and red or green lights mean nothing, so instead the City made the speed limit down there 30 kmh . They don't punish the ones breaking the Law, they put the burden on honest riders/drivers.
I don't think street people would hurt you BUT there are also drug dealers down there masquerading as street people, so you just never know who you are dealing with.
There was a crackdown a few years ago and the drug activity just moved to a different area in the lanes around Granville Street.
Beautiful mural, art pops up in unexpected places. When I was little my great gran used to live on East Hastings and the area was so much different then. Times change and it's such a pity that things go so run down.
ReplyDeleteDar:
DeleteYou should see this Mural in person. You will like it
Our Chinatown moved to Richmond but a few stores remained. It may be busy during the day and weekends but not so much during the evenings. Parking is a problem with vandalism, as only a block or two in each direction has undesirables
Wow it is a stunning mural, I love it
ReplyDeleteLG:
Deletethank you for visiting
Hey Bob:
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you took all things into account before purchasing NU2ME. I don't think I could afford the whale oil, and unicorn blood required to keep it in good shape and as for the riding gear, the price of the whale foreskin lining alone would break my little bank. Sure is a nice ride though.
Chris:
DeleteIt's not as bad as you may think. Just an extra service every 2 years for the Spline Lube, rear Differential & brake fluid flushes which I knew ahead of time. It's just the high cost of repairs should anything fail.
The Beemer is better for the highway and long trips. It has Traction Control, ABS and TPS: Tire Pressure Sensors, plus the bonus of shaft drive for less maintenance whilst "on the road"